Lighthouse Score

During the late 16th and early 17th century, there was a tannery located on either side of the bottom of the score - which wasn’t described as such, but referred to as a common way. This footpath, or track, then continued upwards and diagonally to the left across Lighthouse Hill (as it was known once the High Lighthouse had been built in 1676 on the site still in use today), to join with the top end of the High Street next to where the houses began. During the early 19th century, work was undertaken to step and pave this section - the whole of the footway then acquiring the name of “Lighthouse Score”. Though it wasn’t, of course, a genuine score in the true, topographical sense of the word. The production and working of leather was an important industry in pre-industrial Lowestoft, with the tanneries referred to drawing supplies of water from the spring-line present in the lower sections of the cliff. By 1720, the one on the southern side of the common way had been succeeded by a complex of fish-houses (probably mainly used for the curing of red herrings). 

            The Lighthouse reference requires little explanation. It was often referred to as the High Lighthouse, so as to distinguish it from its  companion down on the on beach (the Low Lighthouse) - both of which had to be aligned at night by approaching vessels, in order to negotiate the Stanford Channel between the Holm Sand and the Newcome Sand and reach safe anchorage inshore. The first High Lighthouse had been built towards the top of Swan Score (north side) in 1628 - but Samuel Pepys (Master of Trinity House) authorised the construction of a replacement in 1676, a short distance out of the town’s built-up area - probably to reduce the fire-risk caused by sparks deriving from the burning of coal or wood to produce the warning light.